6'2.S' 



insifucior Liieraiufe Series — No, 



STonms or thil states 



NEBRASKA 



By Louise W. Mears, A. M 



t 




PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY 
F. A. OWEN PUB. CO., Dansville, N. Y. 
HALL & McCREARY, Chicago, 111. 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES 

5c — Supplementary Readers And Classics for All Grades — 5c 

A series of little books containing material needed for supplementary 
Reading and Study. Classified and Graded. Large type'for lower grades. 

^^lliislist is constantly beinci added to. If (t s}(bst<(nti(il number of books are to be ordered, or if 
other titles than those shown here are desired, send for latest list. 



FIRST GRADE 
Fables and Myths 

*G Fairy Stories of the Moon 
*27 Eleven Fables from Jisop 
♦28 More Fables from ^sop 
♦29 Indian M.vths— i?H.s/i 
♦HO Nursery Tales— ToyZor 
♦288 Primer from Fableland— il/af7«i?-e 
Nature 
♦1 Little Plant People— Part I 
♦2 Little Plant People— Part 11 
*30 Story of a Siml)eam— it/(7?^r 
♦31 Kitty Mittens and Her Friends 
History 
♦32 Patriotic Stories (Story of the Flag, Story 

of Washington, etc.) 
Literature 

♦1U4 Mother Goose Header 
♦228 First Term V rimer— 3raf/uire 
♦230 Khyme and Jingle Reader for Beginners 

SECOND GRADE 
Fables and Myths 

♦33 Stories from Andersen— Tai/Jor 

♦34 Stories from Gnmra— Taylor 

♦3(5 J.ittle Red Hiding Hood— AViYer 

♦37 Jack and the Beanstalk- Aetto- 

♦38 Adventures of a Brownie 
Nature and Industry 
♦3 Little Workers (Animal Stories) 

♦39 Little Wood Friends— J/f/^/ie 

*10 Wiugs and Slings- i/aii/aa; 

♦41 Story of Wool—Jfayne 

♦42 Hird Stories from tlie Poets 
History and Biography 

♦43 Story of the Mayflower— iJfc(7o/)e 

♦45 Boyhood of Washington— 7iei7er 
♦204 Boyhood of 'Lincoln— Eeiter 
Literature 

♦72 P.ow-Wow and Mew-Mew— C?-« /A; 
♦152 Child's (lardeu of Verses — Stevenson 
♦200 Picture Study Stories for Little Children — 

Cr<ni>it(in 
♦220 Story of the Christ Child 
♦202 Four Little Cotton-Tails—*S'»i(7/(. 
♦208 Four Little Cotton Tails in Winter— <S'w/7// 
♦209 Four Little Cotton Tails at Play— (S'?»iY/( 
♦290 Fuzz in Japan— A Child-Life Reader— J/a- 
gaire 

THIRD GRADE 
Fables and Myths 

♦40 Puss in P>0()ts and Cinderella 

♦47 Creek ^lylUfi—Alinf/ensnuth 

♦48 Nature Mylhs—Mrtralf 

♦.■)U Pi-ynardthe Vox— Best 
♦102 Thuinbelinaand Dream Stories 
♦14t) Sleeiiing JJeauty and Other Stories 

174 Sun ^lylha-Keiter 

175 Norse j-egeuds, l—Reiter 

176 Norse I.etieiids, \\—J{eiler 

♦177 Legends of the Rhineland— J/r(7a?>6 

♦2tt2 sieu'fried, The Lorelei, and Other Rliine 

T><'gends— 3f(?(W/je 
Nature and Industry 
♦49 Jhids, Stems and Fruits — Mayne 
♦51 Story of Fla,\— Mayne 
♦52 story of Glass— 7/fni.son 

♦".3 Adventures of a Little Water Drop— iJ/?f?/n/' 
♦133 Aunt INIartha'a Corner Cupboard — Part I. 

Story of Tea and the Teacui) 
♦135 Little People of the Hills (Dry Air and Dry 
SoilPlanls) — ("/i((.s« 



♦137 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard — Part 11. 

Story of Sugar, Coffee and Salt 
♦138 Aunt Martha'sCorner Cupboard— Part III. 

Storj' of Rice, Currants and Honey 
*203 Little Plant People of theWaterways~C/ia.s'e 
History and Biography 
♦4 Sto'ry of Washington— iJejYer 
*7 Story of Longfellow— il/cCa/>e 
♦21 Story of the Pilgrims— ^ou;p?-.s 
*44 Famous Early Americans (Smith.Standish, 

Penn)— 5i(.s7i, 
*54 Story of Columbus— il/<"Ca6e 
55 Story of Whiltier— il/cCaft^ 

57 Story of Louisa INI. AlcoU— Bush 

*59 Storv of the Boston Tea Party —3fcCahe 

♦60 Children of the Northland— ^(/aTi 

♦02 Children of the South Lands— I (Florida, 

Cuba, Puerto Rico) 
♦63 Children of the South Lands— II (Africa, 

Hawaii, The Philippines)— iircTTpe 
♦64 Child Life in the Colonies— I (New Amster- 
dam)— 7?aAe?- 
♦05 Child Life in the Colonies — It (Pennsyl- 
vania) — Baker 
*00 Child Life in the Colonies— IllCVirginiaj- 
♦08 Stories of the Revolution— f (Ethan Allen 

and the Green ISfountain i >oy a)— McCahe 
*69 Stories of the Revolution —II (Around 

Philadelphia)— jrcCrdOe 
^■70 Stories of the Revolution— III (Marion, the 

Swamp Fox) — MeCabe 
♦132 Story of Franklin— i^f/?-i.9 
♦04 The Little Brown Baby and Other Babies 
♦105 Gemila, the Child of the Desert, and some 

of Her Sisters 
♦106 Louise on the Rhine and in Her New Home. 
(JVos. 16i, 165, 166 are the stories from "Seven 
Little Sisters''^ by Jane Andrews) 
♦167 Famous Artists-I-(LandseerandBouheur) 
Literature 
*35 Goody Two Shoes 

58 Selections from Alice and Phoebe Cary 
♦07 The Story of liobinson Crusoe 

♦71 Selections from Hiawatha (lor 3rd, 4th and 

5th Grades) 
♦227 Our Animal Friends and How to Treat 

Them 
♦233 Poems Worth Knowing— Book I— Primary 

, ^ FOURTH GRADE 

Nature and Industry 

♦79 Scory of Coal — Mc.Kane 

'♦Tfs Story of \<:i\ea\.— Halifax 

"11 Story of Cotton— 7j/-o(r/^ 
♦134 Conquests of Little IMant People 
♦136 Peei)Sinto Bird Nooks— T-J/c/Tfc 
♦ISl Stories of the Stars- .l/r/>f? 
♦205 Eyes and No Eyes aud The Three Giants 
History and Biography 
♦5 Story of Lincoln— A'e/to- 

♦.56 Indian Ciiildren Tales— 7?us7i 

♦78 Stories of the Backwoods 

*79 A Little New Euixland Viking— iJaArer 

*Sl Story of De So\.o—JIatjirld 

*82 Storv of Daniel Boone- Jieiter 

*83 Storj'of Printing— J/rC«6e 

*84 Story of David Crockett— iZ^/^er 
•^o Story of Patrick Henry 

•80 American Inventors- 1 (Whitney and Ful- 
ton)— 7v»/-i.s' 

(Continued on Third Cover Page) 



May— 1916 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES 



The Story of Nebraska 

(The Tree Planter's State) 



BY ^ 

Louise W. Mears, A M. 

Formerly Teacher of Geography in the Peru (Neb.) State 
Normal School; Author of " The Hills of Peru." 



f 



PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY 

F. A. OWEN PUB. CO., DANSVILLE, N. Y. 



HALL & MCCREARY, CHICAGO, ILL. 



(Jopyriglil 1916, by F. A. Owe7i Publishing Co, s^ 




^^ ^^ 



J 



\ ti 



^$m -^m^ '^ 



.*"f->' ... 




AUG 21 1916 



Hymn to Nebraska 

Now laud the proud tree planter state, 
Nebraska, — free, enlightened, great; 
Her royal place she has in song ; 
The noblest strains to her belong ; 

Her fame is sure. 
Then sing Nebraska through the years ; 
Extol her stalwart pioneers ; 
The days when, staunch and unafraid. 
The state's foundations well they laid, 

To long endure. 

The land where Coronado trod. 
And brave Marquette surveyed the sod ; 
Where Red Men long in council sat; 
Where spread the valleys of the Platte 

Far 'neath the sun. 
The land, beside whose borders sweep 
The big Missouri's waters deep. 
Whose course erratic, through its sands. 
From north land on, through many lands, 

Does seaward run. 

The foothills of the Rockies lie 
Afar athwart her western sky : 
Her rolling prairie, like the sea, 
Held long in virgin sanctity 

Her fertile loam. 
Her wild-life roamed o'er treeless plains. 
Till came the toiling wagon-trains ; 
And settlers bold, far westward bound, 
In broad Nebraska's valleys found 

Their chosen home. 



4 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

Now o'er her realm and 'neath her sky 
Her golden harvests richly lie; — 
Her corn more vast than Egypt yields, 
Her grain unmatched in other fields, 

Her cattle rare ; 
Alfalfa fields, by winding streams, 
And sunsets, thrilling poets' dreams; — 
These all we sing, and know that time 
Has ne'er revealed a fairer clime, 

Or sweeter air. 

proud Nebraska, brave and free ; 
Thus sings thy populace to thee. 
Thy virile strength, thy love of light, 
Thy civic glory, joined with right. 

Our hearts elate. 
Thy manly wisdom, firm to rule, 
Thy womanhood in church and school, 
Thy learning, culture, art and peace. 
Do make thee strong, and ne'er shall cease 

To keep thee great! 

—Rev W. H, Buss, 

Note: A prize of $100 was awarded to the author, a resident 
of Fremont, Neb., by a special committee to select an ode to be 
sung at celebrations of Nebraska's semi-centennial anniversary. 



The Story of Nebraska 

Nebraska is a state of homes. Its settlement has 
been of such a nature that it has not experienced the 
changes of a shifting or transient population. Scenic 
wonders or climatic extremes have not attracted to it 
a seasonal population. Its rich soils, abundant pure 
water supply and bright skies say to the homeseeker 
that here the greatest of blessings, labor, will bring 
wealth to the possessor. Its State University, located 
at Lincoln, claims the highest per cent of students from 
its own state among institutions of its kind. Ninety- 
five per cent of its students are from Nebraska. This 
fact gives emphasis to the statement that Nebraska is 
a state of homes. It has long stood first in the Union 
as the lowest in per cent of illiteracy. Only 1.9 per 
cent of its population over ten years old were illiterate 
at the last census. (1910). 

Nebraska was admitted to statehood in 1867, the same 
year that Alaska was purchased from Russia. This 
coincidence furnishes a strong contrast for study. 
Alaska, an important possession of empire dimensions, 
partly because the Klondike boom was the reason for its 
influx of population and partly because of its high alti- 
tude and latitude, has had a shifting and even decreas- 
ing population. In contrast to Alaska with its scenic 
wonders, Nebraska has a population whose roots are 
planted in its all-abiding soil. Nebraska has more than 
fifty kinds of soil, found in the three provinces known 
as Loess, Sand Hill, and High Plains Regions. The 
Loess soil area, estimated at more than 37,000 square 



6 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

miles, belongs to the kind that is regarded as the most 
productive in the world. (1915 Blue Book.) 

In contrast with a rugged state like Pennsylvania, 
Nebraska has no physical barriers. For this reason 
there have not been sectional differences along social 
or other lines. It is usually thought of as an agricul- 
tural prairie state. It is in fact one of the most im- 
portant agricultural states in the Union, having, in 
1910, 129,678 farms. 

Students of geographical influences think they have 
found along the fortieth parallel of latitude that happy 
mean of physical conditions that favors the growth of 
population centers. They give a long list of cities to 
prove this fact, naming such centers as Constantinople, 
Peking, Rome, New York City, Chicago, Cincinnati, 
Denver, and Kansas City. Nebraska is on the fortieth 
parallel of latitude, in this belt of mean climatic con- 
ditions, and its young, thriving cities of Omaha, the 
metropolis, and Lincoln, its capital city, are no excep- 
tions to the theory. Nebraska is, moreover, in the 
geographical center of the United States. 

While it is true that the state has no physical bar- 
riers to speak of, it can be separated for convenience 
of study into a number of natural regions. The eastern 
part of the state is prairie, while in the western part 
are high plains. The lowest part is in Richardson 
County, in the southeastern corner of the state, being 
less than 850 feet above the sea. The highest part is 
in Banner and Kimball counties, over 5000 feet in alti- 
tude. The change from prairie to plain in central 
Nebraska marks no change in the form of the land, 
but does make a change in climatic conditions. What 
is a prairie? This question Brigham, the geographer, 
answers by saying that the name prairie especially de- 
notes a flat country, nearly forestless, but well-watered 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 7 

enough for agriculture. On the other hand, the High 
Plains really deserve the name of plateau. Upon them 
the grasses thrive under scant rainfall. 

There are four rather distinct physical regions. They 
are the Loess Region, covering slightly more than the 
southeast half of the state; the Sand Hills, stretching 
across the central and west-central part; the High 
Plains, known as the short grass country, increasing 
in height in the western part of the state ; and the 
Bad Lands, an extension of the Dakota Bad Lands, of 
about 1000 square miles. A railroad journey westward 
across Nebraska on a summer's day gives. the traveler 
a pleasant change from the heat, in which the corn 
thrives, to the bracing dry air of the ranch country. 
With scarcely a perceptible change to the eye, the 
traveler has been lifted from an altitude of 1000 feet 
to that of 5000 feet, in twelve hours. 

The soil of the Loess country is wonderfully fertile, 
deep and easily tilled. The interesting history of its 
origin in Nebraska, and in other parts of the world, 

would easily fill a book. 
One needs no longer 
to study the famed 
Loess hills of China. 
He can find them here 
in Nebraska. These 
are the compact, fine- 
grained, clay hills and 
ridges in eastern Ne- 
braska. So compact is 
the soil that the early 
pioneers often made good wells, fifty or sixty feet deep, 
with almost no brick facing. Cave-cellars, dug many 
years ago, without bricking or cementing, are still 
intact. The soil of the Sand Hill country is fine-grained, 




Sod Schoolhouse, Western Nebraska 



8 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 




Sod Schoolhouse, Western Nebraska 



wind-blown sand, for the most part not adapted to farm 
crops. While the soil of the High Plains is largely sandy 
and alkaline, it is usually fertile and readily tilled. 

Sod Houses 

It is in the High Plains and Sand Hill country that 
we find that interesting form of shelter, the sod house, 
including every vari- 
ation in construction 
that the homesteader 
and the rancher can 
devise. The ^'soddy,'^ 
usually in modified 
form, is still in use and 
is likely to be for some 
time to come, in north- 
western and western 
counties where timber 

is scarce, or transportation facilities are poor. It 
serves both as a country school house and as a dwelling. 
Some houses are entirely of sod and a few saplings, 
while others have a shingled roof and wooden window 
and door casings. The matted, tough roots of the prairie 
grass form a durable sod, and the blocks are cut large 
enough to make the wall stable. The scant rainfall 
leaves the structure intact, and the house may stand 
for many years. While the sod house is a rude and 
humble dwelling, it affords wholesome hospitality to 
the traveler on the treeless plains, and is often oc- 
cupied as a matter of preference because of its perfect 
adaptation to the extremes of weather. 

Discovery of Nebraska 

In every history of the United States mention is 
made of that intrepid Spanish soldier, Coronado, who, 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 9 

in 1541, traveled northeastward from Mexico for hun- 
dreds of miles in search of the reputed gold and silver 
in the Seven Cities of Cibola. Could we but know the 
northern limit of his remarkable journey across the 
desert plains, we should possess an interesting fact that 
affects our story of the discovery of Nebraska. In his 
own records Coronado says that he reached the 40th 
parallel. His favorable description of the country in 
its bloom, as he saw it, is entirely fitting for Nebraska. 
He was perhaps on the South Fork of the Platte, the 
first white man to hunt buffalo on these plains ; but as 
to whether on the plains of Kansas or of Nebraska, 
historians differ. If this Spanish explorer and his 
cruel band set foot upon the state, and white men first 
entered from the southwest instead of from the east, 
there is a touch of romance added to its very early 
history that resembles the Spanish search for the Foun- 
tain of Youth. The discovery of Nebraska would then 
have been more than sixty years before the settlement 
of Jamestown. But the advent of Coronado would 
have had no effect upon the development of our State. 
The settlers were to come from the east. 

Indian Names in Nebraska 

Nebraska, like most of the states in the Union, has 
come in for its share of euphonious Indian names, such 
as Nebraska {Flat water), and Omaha (Upstream), 
Beside the Indian names, there are the translated 
names, such as Weeping Water, Lodge Pole and Long 
Pine. Both the translated and the untranslated names 
have been much mutilated and misunderstood, in their 
transfer from a people without a w^ritten language to 
a frontier class of adventurers, hunters and tradesmen. 
Now that we are coming to value more the beauties 
and the significance of the Indian languages, we regret 



10 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

this unavoidable corruption of place-names. The sub- 
stitution of European names for the Indian names has 
been a distinct loss to science. The naturalist might 
learn through the medium of the Indian names the 
habitat of native plants and animals, and the physical 
features of the country. 

Melvin R. Gilmore of the Nebraska State Historical 
Society, says: — ''Nebraska contained, either partially 
or wholly v^ithin its borders, the following tribes : In 
the northwest were the Teton Dakota; along the 
north, on the lower course of the Niobrara River, south- 
ward to the Platte River, were the Omaha ; south of 
the Platte, in the southeast, were the Oto ; next to 
these were the Iowa, partly on the east side of the 
Missouri River, in what is now the state of Iowa, and 
partly west of the Missouri in what is now the extreme 
southeast part of Nebraska ; south of the Oto were the 
Kansa, from which tribe the state of Kansas is named. 
The Kansa domain was only a little way within what 
is now the south boundary of Nebraska. All of these 
tribes are of Siouan stock, hence their languages are 
cognate although mutually unintelligible. In the 
middle part of the state lay the domain of the Pawnee. 
This was a nation consisting of four tribes of the Cad- 
doan stock. Their language is of a different structure 
and of different sounds. In southwest Nebraska and 
eastern Colorado were the Cheyenne and the Arapahoe, 
two tribes of the great Algonquin linguistic stock. 

Note: — The "Arrow, " a paper published in Omaha in terri- 
torial days, protests against "newfangled names" in this wise: 
"Point out if you can anywhere in the English language any 
names more musical, or more appropriate to our territory than 
these which exist amongst the Indian tribes, or have been affixed 
by old frontiersmen. And so it is all over the territory; city and 
town sites, rivers and creeks have with few exceptions lost these 
beautiful and original names which ofttimes lend an air of en- 
chantment and pleasure to a place." (See also Washington 
Irving's Astoria, page 223.) 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 



11 



Each tribe had its own names for all the region with 
which it was acquainted. Thus it will happen that 
any given stream, lake, or hill may have six or seven 
different names among as many different tribes. It may 
be that the same notable feature is the motive of the 
name by which a place is called by two or more tribes, 
but as the languages differ, the names will be quite 
different in form. There are no less than two hundred 
Indian languages of more than fifty linguistic stocks 
within the bounds of the United States. It is there- 
fore inconsistent to speak of the Tndian language.' '' 



The Meaning of Some Indian Names in Nebraska 

{By M. R. Gilmore) 



NAME 


LANGUAGE 


Keha Paha 


Dakota 


Leshara 


Pawnee 


Minichaduza 


Dakota 


Nebraska 


Omaha 


Nehawka 


Oto and Omaha 


Niobrara 


• Omaha 


Omaha 


Omaha 


Dakota 


Dakota 


Loup 


the French tra 




tribe of the P 


Missouri 


the name given ' 



MEANING 
Turtle Hill 
a chief 
swift water 

flat water (The Omaha 
name for the Platte. ) 
weeping creek 
spreading river (It wid- 
ens over sandbars in 
its lower course.) 
upstream 
leagued 
tion for Wolf, the Wolf 
ee. 

le French, as they learned 
it from the Illinois, to a Siouan tribe on 
the lower course of a river now called 
Missouri. The Omaha called it the Smoke 
River; the Dakota, the Muddy Water; the 
Pawnee, Wonderful Water. 



12 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

Traders 

In 1805, Manuel Lisa, a wealthy Spaniard, with a 
party in search of trading grounds, reached the lands 
north of the Platte and founded the first known settle- 
ment, on the site of what is now Bellevue. The name 
was doubtless given because of the beauty of the 
scenery. In 1810, the American Fur Company, that 
monster monopoly under control of John Jacob Astor, 
established a post at Bellevue. To this place the In- 
dians for hundreds of miles around brought their furs. 
The hundredth anniversary of the establishment of 
this fur-trading post was celebrated at Bellevue in 1910, 
and a monument was there dedicated. 

Gateways 

Most states have a front door, or gateway, so to 
speak. The location of this entrance has determined 
in a large measure the development of the state in its 
pioneer period. Nebraska's gateway was on the east. 
It was unlike its sister state of Iowa, with a large 
navigable stream at the front and the rear entrance. 
The same mighty Missouri, navigable as far as Fort 
Benton, Montana, flowed by Nebraska's front and 
Iowa's rear door. It brought settlers to both states, 
and the population of Nebraska is still found in largest 
numbers within a hundred miles of the river. The 
long streams crossing the state from west to east indi- 
cate the paths traveled by the homeseekers and the 
gold-seekers, who came across the Missouri in ferry- 
boats, steamboats and skiffs. Long before the time of 
the homeseeker's coming, these streams had admitted 
such explorers as Major Long and others (1819) into 
the country. His was the first exploring expedition to 
ascend the Platte from its mouth to the confluence of 
the two forks. He traversed the main Platte through- 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 13 

out its entire length, and the South Fork to the moun- 
tains. Col. Fremont describes the Big Blue as a ' 'clear 
and handsome stream, about 120 feet wide, running 
with a rapid current through a well-timbered valley." 
On the occasion of Fremont's explorations (1842), Kit 
Carson was a most interesting and important member 
of the party. 

These river-paths leading across the state not only 
furnished water-highways for the homeseekers, but, 
what was better still, they afforded fine open valleys 
for lines of easy travel. The buffalo and Indian 
trails were supplanted by the deeply rutted roads of 
the ox-cart and the freight wagon, and lastly by the 
railroad. The Union Pacific followed the Platte River, 
and took advantage of an easy grade and natural road- 
bed. The Chicago Northwestern lies largely in the 
valleys of the Elkhorn and the Niobrara, while the 
Burlington follows the Republican River system. 

On account of its central location, Nebraska became 
from the first a crossing ground for fur traders, ex- 
plorers, Mormons and gold-seekers. Bands of gold- 
seekers crossed the Missouri at Old Fort Kearney (now 
Nebraska City), at Plattsmouth, at Bellevue, and at 
Omaha. Even at crossings farther south they entered, 
as at St. Deroin, Brownville, and Peru. ''Another 
great stream of people flowed from the southeast, strik- 
ing the Platte at (new) Fort Kearney. In 1850, a mil- 
itary road was established, leading from Fort Leaven- 
worth, Kansas, to Fort Kearney on the Platte. It was 
very clear now to the vision of all who had seen its rich 
prairies that it was only a question of time — and a brief 
time, too — when emigrants would cross the Missouri in 
an irresistible wave and spread widely over the fertile 
plains beyond. The Government made haste to pur- 
chase the remainder of its territory from the Indians." 



14 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

Steamboats were busily plying the Missouri Riveras 
early as 1856. The river towns were soon in their prime. 
Fifty-four ''packets'' were making regular trips. 
Brownville, the picturesque old county seat of Nemaha 
County, doomed to decadence, frequently had as many 
as a half dozen steamers at its wharf at one time. 

Fossils of Nebraska 

Of late much is being said and written concerning the 
fossils of western Nebraska. In fact, Sioux County is 
said to be one of the valuable fossil beds of the world. 
''A single specimen of the giant hog found on James 
Henry Cook's ranch, and now in possession of the 
University of Nebraska Museum, is valued at $50,000. " 
The only specimens of the kind said to have been 
found in the world are the two taken from this ranch. 
Here also Prof. Barbour discovered the ancestor of the 
modern horse. Countless bones of prehistoric rhinoc- 
eroses, and of ancestors of the cat and the lion are found 
scattered through the bone field. The Cook ranch is lo- 
cated in southern Sioux County, close to the Wyoming 
line. It comprises about 18,000 acres, with the Nio- 
brara River running through it. As the river has cut 
a valley, it has laid bare two conspicuous hills, the 
bases of which are full of bones. They are University 
Hill, named in honor of the University of Nebraska, 
and Carnegie Hill, named for the Carnegie Museum. 
Bone layers are found varying in thickness from a few 
inches to a couple of feet, where the bones are piled 
together like corn in a crib. If one can conceive of a 
pile of petrified corn, he can picture the bone layers. 

The theory which attempts to account for the vast 
assemblage of skeletons in this particular area is an 
interesting one. It is supposed that the presence of a 
lake, or deep river, made conditions possible whereby 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 15 

the bodies of these thousands of animals might be 
floated and dropped, and then covered with a great 
thickness of rock. The most distinguished paleontol- 
ogists devote their summers to work in these quarries. 
The fossil elephants are described in a report by Prof. 
E. H. Barbour, December 14, 1914. He says that these 
prehistoric elephants must have roamed the state in 
great herds. Six or eight species of mastodons and 
four of mammoths are already known to Nebraska. 
Mammoth bones occur throughout the entire state, 
'Tt is thought primitive man, with his prowess and 
cunning, had something to do with the extermination 
of the American mastodon. That man and the mam- 
moths were contemporary is evidenced by drawings 
incised with flint upon the walls of caves and upon the 
tusks of mammoths. The mammoths were true ele- 
phants. The Imperial stood thirteen and one-half feet 
high. Its tusks were twelve to thirteen feet in length, 
and the longest of them exceeded sixteen feet. Each 
must have weighed about a thousand pounds.'' 

la Territorial Days 

Nebraska was a part of the Louisiana Province, 
first under French dominion (1682) ; then Spanish 
(1763) ; and once more under French dominion (1801) 
before it finally became a possession of the United 
States (1803), as a part of the Louisiana Purchase. 

Lewis and Clark explored eastern Nebraska when 
on their expedition to discover the sources and course 
of the Missouri. The diary kept by these men is a de- 
lightful description of the valley in its virgin beauty. 
Like those of Coronado, the accounts tell of the abun- 
dance of wild fruit, especially the plum and the cherry, 
the tall grasses higher than a man's head, and the 
variety of game. The explorers entered the mouths of 



16 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

tributary streams, such as the Nemaha, Platte and 
Niobrara, They wished to hold meetings with the In- 
dians who were hunting on the prairies. From a page 
in the diary of Lewis and Clark, dated August, 1804, 
we read of their meeting with the Otoes,^ who arrived 
with six chiefs, assembled under an awning of the 
mainsail, and paraded for the occasion. . A speech was 
then made to them, announcing the changfe'of govern- 
ment, with promises of protection' and advice as to 
their future conduct. All the six chiefs replied to the 
speech, each in his turn according to ¥aTi4c. They ex- 
pressed their joy at the change in government. The 
place where this meeting occurred was named Council 
Bluffs, of which the diary says, ''the situation of it is 
exceedingly favorable for a fort and trading factory. 
It is also central to the chief resorts of the Indians." 

As changes were made in the boundaries of the lands 
west of the Mississippi from time to time, Nebraska 
was included with different areas, such as the Louisiana 
Territory, with St. Louis as the capital (1805) ; and the 
Missouri Territory (1812) ; while in 1834 it was called- 
by act of Congress, what it really had been all the 
time — ''Indian country.'' When Nebraska Territory 
was formed in 1854, it extended from the 40th par- 
allel, its present boundary on the south, to Canada on 
the north, and westward to the Rockies. 

It will be remembered that Nebraska, according to 
the famous Missouri Compromise of 1820, was to be 
spared the ordeal of the struggle over slavery. But 
how far from permanent the provision for free soil was, 
may be read in the many pages of American history 
devoted to the debates and the final undoing of the 
Compromise by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill (1854), The 
period of squatter sovereignty interests us here chiefly 
because of its important influence upon the settlement 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 17 

of Nebraska. Settlers came pouring in from the East 
to swell the number of pro-slavery as well as anti- 
slavery supporters. Life in Nebraska took on a differ- 
ent tone, and foundations were laid for the future pros- 
perity of the state. Civil war existed in the neighbor- 
ing territory of Kansas, where the question of slavery 
was bitterly, contested. In these days John Brown 
traveled through southeastern Nebraska. He had zeal- 
ous adherents at Peru, which was one of the Under- 
ground Railroad towns. ''He made frequent visits to 
the place, on one trip bringing with him fourteen fugi- 
tives. " Brownville was the scene of even greater ac- 
tivity, due to the crossing of pro-slavery men from 
Missouri and anti-slavery men bound for Kansas. The 
border ruffians, the Missouri guerillas and the Kansas 
jayhawkers were all hurrying across the border lines. 

Buffalo Bill 

Since the history, and perhaps the geography, of a 
region are often best learned through biography, we 
can find no character that reveals more perfectly the 
early history of Western Nebraska than the eventful 
career of the most picturesque of plainsmen. Colonel 
Wm. F. Cody, known to the world as Buffalo Bill. In 
his interesting career we learn of that time when 
buffaloes and Indians roamed over the country where 
no white man had a home; when the traveler crossing 
the plains in the prairie schooner, the stage-coach, or 
on horseback, depended upon the buffalo or the deer 
for his food ; when he must prepare at a moment's 
notice for Indian surprises, stage robbers, floods or 
prairies fires. Much of this very thrilling part of 
American history has been depicted in Buffalo Bill's 
Wild West Show, which found favor in all parts of 
Europe, as well as in America. 



18 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 



While Buffalo Bill's birthplace is in Scott Co., Iowa, 
Nebraska claims him, for a number of reasons. North 
Platte, Nebraska, was long one of his homes, and 
''Scout's Rest," his ranch at North Platte, was used 
as a haven for his recuperating show animals. He was 
born in 1846, at a time when the 
plains were using men of his type. 
The discovery of gold in Califor- 
nia had caused men to turn their 
desires toward a region removed 
by several thousand miles from 
the civilization of the eastern part 
of the United States. Great 
plains, ''The Great American 
Desert, " mountains and salt seas 
were not sufficient barriers to 
stem the rush of gold-seekers. 

Buffalo Bill's father started in 
the rush for gold, but like many 
another person he changed his 

mind, and looked for a place to settle in a frontier state. 
He settled near Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and later in 
Salt Creek Valley in that state, which was on the line 
of one or two trails "that stretched for two thousand 
miles or more across this waste of plain and mountain, 
to California." The family experienced all the hard- 
ships of border warfare incident to the disputes over 
slavery, and the father, as an Abolitionist, was threat- 
ened with death repeatedly. He died of an illness 
when Buffalo Bill was eleven years old. 

Beginning at this point in the biography, one may 
read the history of the pioneer period of Western Ne- 
braska. It was at this time, in 1857, that the eleven 
year old boy was engaged to help drive beef-cattle to 
Salt Lake City for General Albert Sydney Johnston's 




Colonel Wm. F. Cody 
"Buffalo Bill" 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 19 

army, which was then being sent against the Mormons. 
And it was on this expedition that the boy shot and 
killed his first Indian. 

In 1867, General Sheridan appointed Buffalo Bill as 
guide and chief of scouts for the Department of the 
Missouri, on an expedition against the Cheyenne In- 
dians in the Republican River region. His phenomenal 
sagacity as a buffalo hunter was recognized by the 
officers on this expedition, as he provided fresh meat 
for the company. Indians marveled at his superior 
skill. At nearly every shot he killed a buffalo, and 
on less than a half-mile run he killed thirty-six. That 
is, he was able to do alone what twenty Pawnees had 
accomplished together. 

Old Freighting Days 

The time of the old freighting days, as a phase of 
Nebraska history, is well portrayed in the life of 
Buffalo Bill. He was engaged as a ''boy extra" in 
one of these caravans. There was a firm — a famous 
one in the western part of the United States — named 
Russell, Majors and Waddell, frontiersmen who had 
gradually built up a line of freight-wagons that went 
from St. Joseph, Missouri, to San Francisco, two thou- 
sand miles across the plains and mountains, carrying 
the freight that was shipped from the East to the West 
and bringing back freight from California to the East. 
These goods were packed in huge wagons with canvas 
tops, drawn sometimes by ten and sometimes even by 
twenty teams of oxen. There was so much danger in 
these trips from Indians and outlaws that they never 
started without several wagons in a caravan, with a 
guard of frontiersmen all armed and ready for attack 
from any source. At night they camped in certain 
places along the trail where there was water and, if 



20 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

possible, wood. They cooked their own meals. They 
set up their own pickets and guards, and started on 
again the next morning to another camp. The journey 
took about a month ; and time and again the whole out- 
fit would fail to appear at the other end. It had been 
attacked and all the men killed by Indians, or by the 
robbers of the plains. And sometimes the next cara- 
van would find remnants of the v/agons and the dead 
bodies of men and oxen. 

The wagons used in those days by Russell, Majors 
and Waddell were known as the ''J. Murphy wagons, '^ 
made at St. Louis especially for the plains business. 
They were very large and very strongly built, capable 
of carrying seven thousand pounds of freight each. 
The wagon boxes were very commodious, being as 
large as the rooms of an ordinary house, and were 
covered with two heavy canvas sheets to protect the 
merchandise from the rain. These wagons were gen- 
erally sent out from Leavenworth, each loaded with 
six thousand pounds of freight, and each drawn by 
several yoke of oxen in charge of one driver. A train 
consisted of twenty-five wagons, all in charge of one 
man, who was known as wagon-master. Then came 
the ' 'extra hand, ' ' next the night herder, and lastly the 
cattle driver, whose duty it was to drive the loose and 
lame cattle. There were thirty-one men, all told, in 
a train. In the work of cooking, the men were divided 
into messes of seven. One man cooked, another brought 
wood and water, another stood guard, each having 
some duty to perform while getting meals. All were 
armed with Colt's pistols and heavy rifles, and every 
one had his weapons handy, prepared for any 
emergency. 

*The wagon-master, in the language of the plains, 
was called the 'bull- wagon boss' ; the teamsters were 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 



21 



and the whole train was 
Everything at that time 



known as 'bull-whackers' 
denominated a 'bull outfit, 
was called an 'outfit'.'' 

"The trails to Salt Lake ran through Kansas north- 
westwardly, crossing the Big Blue River, then over 
the Big and Little Sandy, coming into Nebraska near 
the Big Sandy. The next stream of any importance 
was the Little Blue, along which the trail ran for sixty 

miles, then crossed a range 
of sand hills, and struck 
the Platte River ten miles 
below Fort Kearney; 
thence the course lay up 
the South Platte to the old 
Ash Hollow Crossing; 
thence eighteen miles 
across to the North Platte, 
near the mouth of the Blue 
Water, where General Har- 
ney had his great battle in 
1855 with the Sioux and 
Cheyenne Indians. From 
this point the North Platte 
was followed, passing 
Court House Rock, Chim- 
ney Rock, and Scott's 
Bluffs, and then on to Fort 
Laramie, where the Laramie River was crossed. Still 
following the North Platte for a considerable distance, 
the trail crossed the river at Old Richard's Bridge, 
and followed it up to the celebrated Red Buttes, cross- 
ing the Willow Creeks to the Sweet Water, thence 
past the Cold Springs, where, three feet under the 
sod, on the hottest summer day, ice can be found ; 
thence to the Hot Springs and the Rocky Ridge, and 




Oregon Trail Monument, near Hebron 



22 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

through the Rocky Mountains and Echo Canyon, and 
thence on to the great Salt Lake Valley. " 

We next find Buffalo Bill as a Pony Express Rider. 
From his own writings we quote the following: 

'The firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell, who have 
already been mentioned, increased in importance be- 
cause they were the only men who carried out success- 
fully on a large scale the business of transporting 
freight across the desert and the mountains to Cali- 
fornia. But as California grew — and it grew very 
fast in a few years — there came a demand for a speed- 
ier method of communication between the western 
frontier in the East and the eastern frontier in the 
West. The great freight transporters, therefore, con- 
ceived the idea of getting up a scheme for carrying a 
few letters at a much faster rate from St. Joseph to 
San Francisco by means of a single horseman riding a 
pony at full speed. Their idea was that a man should 
mount a swift pony, well tried for his endurance be- 
fore starting; that this man should ride straight out 
into the desert, and that at the end of fifteen miles there 
should be a station — that is, a house with a couple of men 
in it, who would have another pony ready. Here the 
horseman was to jump to the ground with his bag of 
letters, immediately mount a fresh pony, and rush along 
another fifteen miles to a similar station. Some of 
these stations were in settlements, some were in towns, 
but most of them were on the bleak prairies or in the 
hills of the Rocky Mountains. The trail was the same 
as that used by the freight bull trains. The bull train 
stations were of course used, but it was necessary to 
increase the number of stations. Some of the divisions 
were longer than others. But the average was a dis- 
tance of forty-five miles; that is, the man who rode 
one of these divisions of the two thousand miles, rode 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 



23 



fifteen miles on one pony, fifteen miles on the second, 
and fifteen miles on the third. Then he began his re- 
turn trip of forty -five miles. The longest division was 
two hundred and fifty miles. The men received about 
one hundred and twenty dollars a month, which was 
very high pay. But' this gave the promoters of the 
scheme their choice among the best men of the frontier. 
''No rider was allowed to carry more than twenty 
pounds in his mail bag. The bags were water-proof, 
and once locked at St. Joseph, Missouri, they were not 
opened until they were delivered in Sacramento, Cali- 
fornia, two thousand miles away. The first trip was 
started on the third of April, 1860. The journey took 
ten days for the two thousand miles. But in a short 
time the average trip was made regularly in nine days, 
and thefastesttrip was made when President Lincoln's 
inaugural address was carried over the two thousand 
miles in seven days and seventeen hours. '* (The Ad- 
ventures of Buffalo Bill, by William F. Cody.) 



The Overland Stage 

After the Civil War, Buffalo Bill drove the famous 

overland stage, which 
ran from St. Joseph 
to Sacramento, doing 
the two thousand miles 
in nineteen days on 
the average. His run 
in Nebraska was from 
Fort Kearney to Plum 
Creek, and he drove 
six horses. 

* This stage was an- 
other of the enterprises of the great firm of Russell, 
Majors and Waddell. It was a difficult enterprise, too. 




Old Overland Coach, property of the late 
Hon. J. Sterling Morton, Arbor Lodge, 
Nebraska City. 



24 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

The stage often carried large sums of money, and 
was therefore frequently held up by desperadoes or 
Indians. 

* *No one seemed very anxious to undertake the work 
of driver, although it was well paid. And the now fa- 
mous Indian scout saw his opportunity again of making 
relatively large sums of money by taking risks that 
few others would take. He started driving the coach 
for what was called a division — that is, two hundred 
and fifty miles. 

* 'Those were strange old coaches. The old Deadwood 
coach has been one of the most attractive features of 
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. They were large- 
wheeled wagons swung on braces. They had to be 
strong, for they went over the most frightful roads 
one can imagine. Passengers could ride inside or on 
top, and every one who travelled went as fully armed 
as he could. There never was a time in the night or 
day when the coach was not apt to be attacked, and if 
it was attacked, the man on the box was the first one 
shot.'' . 

One of these stage coaches, in a fine state of preser- 
vation, was brought to Nebraska City, as the property 
of the Hon. J. Sterling Morton, where it has attracted 
much interest. It had been in use more than a third 
of a century on the regular stage routes when it was 
brought to Nebraska City, and its running-gear was in 
perfect condition. It was attacked by Indians in the 
Blue Valley, in 1864. 

A shaft of red granite at Hebron, Nebraska, bears 
the following inscription: ''Oregon Trail, from Inde- 
pendence and Westport (Kansas City) Missouri, to the 
Columbia River, route trail of the trappers and traders 
as early as 1830. A main road to the gold fields and 
western military posts. The path of the Pony Express 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 25 

and the Overland Stage, gradually superseded by rail- 
roads throughout its course. Erected May, 1915, by 
the state of Nebraska, county of Thayer, citizens of 
Hebron, and Oregon Trail chapter, Daughters of the 
American Revolution/' 

Industries 

Nebraska may be divided into three parts in regard 
to its industries, although the divisions cannot be re- 
garded as stable. In the East we find diversified farm- 
ing, stock raising, fruit growing and manufacturing. 
In the middle part, we have diversified farming, stock 
raising, and less fruit growing. In the West, on the 
High Plains, we have the ranching. 

In 1904 a homestead law, known as the Kinkaid 
Act, was passed by Congress for the benefit of the 
homesteader in the semi-arid portion — the sand hills 
and high plains — of Nebraska. It allows him to make 
an entry for 640 acres of land, instead of for 160 acres 
as formerly, the land to be as compact in form as pos- 
sible and not to exceed two miles in length. There 
are excluded from the provisions of the act such lands 
as in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior may 
be reasonably practicable for irrigation by means of 
water conducted from natural streams, under the na- 
tional irrigation law, or by private enterprise, partic- 
ularly along the North Platte River. Thus the home- 
steader makes up in quantity of land for what the soil 
lacks in quality and productiveness. Here the farmer 
must depend almost entirely upon grazing and stock 
raising. 'The use of windmills may enable him to 
grow a garden and perhaps a few acres of field prod- 
ucts in some favorable location on his claim, but in 
the main his dependence must be upon utilizing the 
natural sparse growth of grass. '' In thirty-four west- 



26 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

ern and northwestern counties the land is more or less 
rough and sandy, suitable to grazing, and the Kinkaid 
Act applies to such parts of them as were unreserved. 
The natural drawbacks to these lands for 160-acre 
homesteads, as originally planned, were the semi-arid 
conditions, the impossibility of reclaiming by irriga- 
tion on account of the lack of water supply and the 
great elevation, ranging from 2000 feet at the eastern 
limit of the area to 5000 feet or more at the western 
limit, and being far above the level of the streams. 

As one would expect, the distribution of population 
corresponds to that of the industries. All the cities 
are found in the eastern part, or Loess Region. There 
are growing towns on the High Plains, but no towns 
deserving the name of cities are found in the Sand Hills 
or Bad Lands. 

For convenience of study, the state may be divided 
by the 100th meridian into two rainfall belts, the sec- 
tion on the east receiving more than twenty-one inches 
of rainfall ; and on the west, less than twenty-one 
inches, or less than the minimum amount for agricul- 
ture. But the boundaries of all the regions mentioned, 
— industries, population, and rainfall — are rapidly 
shifting. Irrigation is bringing about a transformation 
in the dry regions. The needed moisture has come, 
and the soil has not been found wanting. The Federal 
irrigation scheme, completed in 1911, embraces 110,000 
acres in the arid region of Nebraska and Wyoming. 

Dry Farming 

Nebraska may be regarded as the home of dry farm- 
ing, inasmuch as Mr. H. W. Campbell, the man for 
whom the Campbell method of soil culture was named, 
was a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska. Dry farming 
keeps the moisture in the soil by preventing it from 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 27 

passing off into the atmosphere by evaporation. After 
each important rain during the season, the surface is 
harrowed. Many countries in the world have adopted 
the system of dry farming. This system is doing much 
to reclaim, without irrigation, the territory west of 
the 97th meridian which was once known as The Great 
American Desert. H. W. Campbell taught that if 
the soil is tilled intensively, twelve inches of moisture 
are sufficient in the semi-arid portions of the United 
States to produce crops. Yet over a very large portion 
of this region of America the annual precipitation ex- 
ceeds fourteen inches. 

Mountains in Nebraska 

In so far as altitude and prominence of elevations 
make mountains, Nebraska may be said to contain them. 
In the High Plains regions there are remarkable groups 
of hundreds of buttes. These are remnants of a great 
ancient table-land. They were left standing after the 
table-land was eroded. The deep valleys between them 
are called canyons, and the buttes, mountains. ''The 
largest buttes occur in Pine Ridge and in Wild Cat 
Range, where the country is of mountain altitude and 
scenery," (Condra's Geography of Nebraska.) Pine 
Ridge, an eroded portion of the High Plains containing 
numerous buttes, extends through the three northwest- 
ern counties of the state. The Wild Cat Range occurs 
in Scotts Bluff County. The buttes in these and other 
ranges are between 4000 and 5000 feet high. When 
we consider their altitude and how conspicuously they 
tower above the plains, we may consider the country 
as truly mountainous as many parts of the Appalachian 
highland. 



28 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 



The Steam Wagon Road 

In Nebraska City there stands a monument, unveiled 

by the Nebraska State Historical Society in 1914, to 

mark the starting point of the old steam wagon road. 

The monument, which is a large boulder, bears this 

inscription upon a large tablet: 

steam Wagon 
Invented and Owned 
by Joseph R. Brown of Minnesota. 

Manufactured 
by John A. Reed of New York. 

Landed at Nebraska City 
From Steamer West Wind July 12, 1862. 
Started for Denver self-propelled 
July 22, 1862. 
Disabled and Abandoned Seven Miles out. 

This inscription is the 
story in brief of the Prairie 
Motor that was hailed with 
wild enthusiasm by the citi- 
zens of Nebraska City when 
it started, drawing three road 
wagons crowded with excited 
citizens, enroute for Denver. 
There were at the time five 
regular stage routes between 
the Missouri River and Den- 
ver, all of them meeting at 
Fort Kearney, and the intro- 
duction of steam was to rev- 
olutionize the slow and expen- 
sive * 'teaming'' on the prairie 
road. Financial support was 
lacking to push the steam wagon project to success. 

Location of the Capital 

There is something bordering on tragedy in that 
portion of the history of Nebraska which relates to the 



Hi 


MM 


■ 


1^1 




■ 




Wt/M 


■1 




Monument at Nebraska City 
to mark the starting place of the 
old Steam Wagon Road. 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 



29 



location of both the Territorial and the State capitals. 
The strife among the rival towns and the grief over 
defeat caused wounds that seemed slow to heal. When 
the first Territorial governor, Francis Burt of South 
Carolina, arrived in Nebraska, Belle- 
vue was the only settlement worthy 
of the name of village. It was the 
official headquarters, and he was en- 
tertained at the Mission House, which 
had been established here for the Oto 
and Omaha Indians (1846). Two days 
after his arrival, the governor died 
from the effects of the overland trip. 
His was to have been the difficult task 
of selecting the site for a territorial 
capital. Bellevue, with its favorable 
location near the Missouri and the 
Platte and its early settlement, had 
every reason to expect the prize. Its 
rivals were Florence, Omaha, Platts- 
mouth and Nebraska City. The ex- 
citement, increased largely by land 
speculators, was intense. Omaha was 
especially aggressive, and it was 
chosen by Acting Governor Cuming as the place for 
the meeting of the first territorial legislature (1855). 
Omaha was further favored and its future assured when, 
in 1863, the President of the United States named that 
point as the starting place for the Union Pacific Rail- 
road, which was to follow the Platte westward. It 
would then become the great gateway for emigrants. 
'The Bellevue of today, in size and condition, suf- 
fices only to illustrate the truth that mere righteous- 
ness and beauty are not in the reckoning against west- 
ern hustle, with all that it implies. The original mis- 




statue of Abraham 
Lincoln, State House 
Grounds, Lincoln, 
Neb. Dedicated Labor 
Day, Sept. 2d, 1912. 



30 THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 

sionary's residence and the building which was occu- 
pied by the Indian agency are still standing, the first 
on the edge of the plateau immediately overlooking the 
river. The first church (Presbyterian) and the resi- 
dences of Chief Justice Fenner Ferguson and Augustus 
Hall are still standing and in use. The natural town- 
site of Bellevue comprises a level plateau of about 3000 
acres in the angle between the Missouri River and 
Papillion Creek. It rises on the north to a high hill 
which seems to have been especially designed by 
nature for the capitol of the commonwealth. The 
eminence is fittingly crowned by the main building of 
Bellevue College.'' (Morton's History.) 

There was bitter sectional strife in Nebraska in 
territorial days between the country north of the Platte 
and that to the south. The South Platte country at- 
tempted to secede and become annexed to Kansas. A 
bill was also introduced in the Kansas legislature in 
1858, making the Platte River the northern boundary 
of that territory. The annexation schemes in both 
states ended in 1860. 

Removal of the Capital 

When the twelfth and last legislature met in Omaha 
in January, 1867, the Territory became a State, and at 
the same time the capital was moved from Omaha to 
Lincoln, which was then only a mark on the map. 
Men seemed to follow visions in those days, so to 
speak. Owing to the spread of population westward, 
there was good reason for the change. ''Lincoln suc- 
ceeded his great rival, Douglas, in national political 
leadership." (Omaha is situated in Douglas county.) 
In spite of the fact that $130,000 had been expended 
for the State House at Omaha on Capitol Hill, the 
removal took place. The townsite of Lancaster, in the 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 



31 




Luke Lavendar's Log Cabin, Lincoln 



midst of the un- 
broken prairies, 
was renamed 
Lincoln, an il- 
lustrious name 
for a place of 
two stores and 
a half dozen 
houses. 'The 
first domicile 
(1863) was built 
by Luke Laven- 
dar, which stood near the corner of what is now and 
15th streets. " The State capitol stands on the grounds 
of the old Lavendar homestead. Lincoln is situated on 
Salt Creek, and the numerous salt basins in the vicinity- 
caused the friends of the new capital to predict that 
salt would become a source of revenue to the city. By 
the end of the year 1868 the State House at Lincoln 
had been partially erected, and Governor Butler ''issued 
a proclamation announcing the removal of the seat of 
government to Lincoln, and ordered 
the transfer of the archives of the 

f'^ State to the new Capital.'' In two 

"^ * years more, buildings were com- 

pleted for a State University and an 
asylum for the insane. The Bur- 
lington and Missouri River Railroad 
had reached Lincoln, and the popula- 
tion of the town had become 2500. 

Two thriving cities, with interests 
still unlike, as might be anticipated 
from the nature of their beginnings, 
are to be seen in Lincoln, the cap- 
ital, and Omaha, the metropolis. At 







David Butler 

First Governor of Ne- 
braska under State Gov- 
ernment, and one of the 
Commissioners who lo- 
cated the Capital at Lin- 
coln. 



32 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 



Omaha fourteen trunk lines of railroad meet. Smelters, 
meat-packing houses, (South Omaha) and factories give 
the city its prominence. Lincoln, from the very begin- 
ning, when Elder Young (1863) and his colony chose 
the site for the location of an academy, has attracted 
schools. Three universities and several colleges are in 
the vicinity. The atmosphere of a college town will 
probably overshadow its commerical importance, al- 
though its prosperity is assured by the fine farming 
country about it. 

Nebraska the Home 
of Arbor Day 

The story of Ne- 
braska would not be 
complete without its 
crowning achieve- 
ment, the founding of 
Arbor Day. That a 
prairie state should 
have led in the march 
of the tree planters is 
only another proof of 
the old adage, that the 
best teacher one can 
have is necessity. 
Whether the prairie 
had been always tree- 
less, or whether the 
seasonal fij^es had pre- 
vented the spread of 
the forest beyond the 
edge of the rivers, is 
not known. But of one 
thing we are certain 
beyond a doubt, name- 




statue of J. Sterling Morton, the father of 
Arbor Day, erected at Morton Park, Ne- 
braska City, by the Arbor Day Memorial 
Association, 1905. Dedicated by Ex-Presi- 
dent Grover Cleveland and the surviving 
members of his Cabinet. Legends appear- 
ing on the monument: "Plant Trees. Love 
of Home is Primary Patriotism. Other 
Holidays repose upon the Past. Arbor Day 
proposes for the Future." The sculptor 
was Rudolph Evans. 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 33 

ly, that these broad, rolling lands afford an ideal home 
for trees, not only for those planted by man, but for 
the wind-blown seeds that have crowned the hills with 
oaks and elms. 

To this treeless prairie state the founder of Arbor 
Day, J. Sterling Morton, came from Michigan as a 
young pioneer in 1854, and by word and deed preached 
the gospel of planting trees. He succeeded in having 
the State Board of Agriculture set apart an ''Arbor 
Day" in 1872, and on that single day, we are told, one 
million trees were set out in Nebraska. Many trees 
stand today, planted by his own hand at Arbor Lodge, 
Nebraska City, to prove that this prairie state could 
bounteously nourish and rear trees of many climes. His 
coat-of-arms and his watchword became ' Tlant Trees. ' ' 
The father of Arbor Day became national Secretary of 
Agriculture in 1893, and the holiday, made legal in 
Nebraska in 1885, falls upon April 22d, his birthday. 

The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 

To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave. 

And spread the roof above them, — ere he framed 

The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 

The sound of anthems ; in the darkling wood, 

Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down 

And offered to the Mightiest, solemn thanks 

And supplication. For his simple heart 

Might not resist the sacred influences. 

Which, from the stilly twilight of the place, 

And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven 

Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound 

Of the invisible breath that swayed at once 

All their green tops, stole over him, and bowed 

His spirit with the thought of boundless power 

And inaccessible m.ajesty. — Bryant, 



34 THE STOR.Y OF NEBRASKA 

The Prairies 

These are the Gardens of the Desert, these 

The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful. 

For which the speech of England has no name — 

The Prairies. I behold them for the first. 

And my heart swells, while the dilated sight 

Takes in the encircling vastness. Lo ! they stretch 

In airy undulations, far away. 

As if the ocean, in his gentlest swell. 

Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed. 

And motionless forever. — Motionless? — 

No — they are all unchained again. The clouds 

Sweep over with their shadows, and, beneath, 

The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye ; 

Dark hollows seem to glide along and chase 

The sunny ridges. Breezes of the South ! 

Who toss the golden and the flame-like flowers. 

And pass the prairie-hawk that, poised on high, 

Flaps his broad wings, yet moves not — ye have played 

Among the palms of Mexico and vines 

Of Texas, and have crisped the limpid brooks 

That from the fountains of Sonora glide 

Into the calm Pacific — have ye fanned 

A nobler or a lovelier scene than this ? 

K ^ 5(C *(? 5fC SjC SfC 

Still this great solitude is quick with life. 

Myriads of insects, gaudy as the flowers 

They flutter over, gentle quadrupeds. 

And birds, that scarce have learned the fear of man, 

Are here, and sliding reptiles of the ground, 

Startlingly beautiful. The graceful deer 

Bounds to the wood at my approach. The bee, 

A more adventurous colonist than man. 

With whom he came across the eastern deep, 



THE STORY OF NEBRASKA 35 

Fills the savannas with his murmurings, 

And hides his sweets, as in the golden age, 

Within the hollow oak. I listen long 

To his domestic hum, and think I hear 

The sound of that advancing multitude 

Which soon shall fill these deserts. From the ground 

Comes up the laugh of children, the soft voice 

Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn 

Of Sabbath worshippers. The low of herds 

Blends with the rustling of the heavy grain 

Over the dark-brown furrows. All at once 

A fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream. 

And I am in the wilderness alone. 

— Bryant. 



Some Interesting Facts 

Nebraska was organized as a territory in 1854. 

Was admitted to the Union in 1867. 

It contains 76,808 square miles and approximates 
50,000,000 acres. 

The average Nebraska farm is 297.8 acres. 

The total population of the state in 1910 was 1,192,214 
of which, according to government statistics, approxi- 
mately 888,000 are rural and 310,000 urban. Fifty years 
ago there were few white settlers. 

For the support of the public schools the state has 
$9,747,616.65 of permanent productive funds and 1,900,- 
625 acres of school lands. 

Nebraska ranks: 

3 in production of hay. 

4 in production of wheat. 

5 in production of corn. 

12 in milch cows. 

3 in other cattle. 

4 in value of swine. 

6 in value of horses. 

3 in wealth per capita of rural population. 

5 in value of four leading crops. 

13 in rural population. 

Nebraska has the largest creamery in the world and 
Omaha is the largest creamery butter producing city in 
the world and produces butter rivaling the famous but- 
ter of Denmark. Nebraska has the largest horse mar- 
ket in the United States, and the largest sheep feeding 
market in the world. 

Nebraska Produced in 1915 

Potatoes. $ 6,000,000 Vegetables. . • .$ 20,000,000 

Fresh Fruit. • . . 24,000,000 Barley 1,000,000 

Rye 2,000,000 Oats. 28,000,000 

Wheat 78,000,000 Corn 102,000,000 

Apples 1,000,000 Sugar 5,000,000 

Eggs 15,000,000 Poultry 7,000,000 

Dairy Products 40,000,000 Mutton 3,000,000 

Beef 92,000,000 Pork 100,000,000 

— From Nebraska Educational Bulletin, Semi- Centennial Cele- 
bration, issued by State Department of Public Instruction. 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SKR\E:S— Continued 



*87 American Inventors— II (Morse and Edi- 
son)— i-'arfs 
*88 American "Naval Heroes (Jones, Perry, 
Farragut)— -Btfs/i. 
89 Fremontaud Kit Carson— Jndd 
♦91 Storj'of Eugene Field— i)/cCVffte 
*178 8torv of Lexington and Bimlier Hill — Bake?- 
*182 Story of Joan of Arc— McFee 
*207 Famous Artists— II— Reynolds andMurillo 

—Cranston 
*243 Famous Artfsts-TII— Millet 
*248 Makers of European History 
Literature 

*90 Fifteen Selections from Liongfellow — (Vil- 
lage Blaclismith, Children's Hour, and 
others) 
*95 Japanese] Myths and Legends 
103 Stories from the Old Testament 
*111 Water Babies (Abridged) 
*171 Tolmi of the Treetops— Grmies 
*172 Labu the IJttle Lake Dweller 
*173 Taraof the Tents— Grimes 
*195 Night before Christmas and Other Christ- 
mas Poems and Stories (Any Grade) 
*201 Alice's First Adventures in Wonderland 
*202 Ah'ce's Further Adventures in Wonderland 

—Can-oil 
*256 Bolo the Cave Boy — Orhnes 
*2G2 Kwasa the Cliff Dweller— 6^?-(7Mes 

FIFTH GRADE 
Nature and Industry 

*92 Animal Life in the ^ea.—McFee 

*m Story of Silk— 5roir?i 

*'.»4 Storv of Sugar— iJe(7er 

*96 What We Drink (Tea, Coffee and Cocoa) 
*139 Peeps into Bird Nooks— 11 

210 Snowdrops and Crocuses 

263 The Sky FsunWy— Denton 
*280 Making of the World — Herndon 
*281 Builders of the World— i/er?ido?j. 
*2S3 Stories of T'wnQ—Bush 
History and Biograpliy 

*16 Ex'plorations of the Northwest 
80 Story of the Cfihois— McBride 

*97 Storv of the Norsemen— Jfan.so?!. 

98 Story of Nathan Hale— il/cCa^e 

99 Story of Jeilerson— il/rCo<;e 

100 Story of Brvaut— Jici-'ff 

101 Story of Kobert E.Lpp- 3fc^a?t« 
105 Story of Qa.na.A&—McCabe, 

*106 Story of Mexico— il/rCate 

*107 Story of Robert Louis Stevenson 

110 Story of Hawtiiorne- 7l/cf>e 

112 Biographical Stories— i/ou><ftoj-Jie 

HI Story of Gram— il/c /rone 
*144 Story of Steam— ilicCaiie 

145 Story of IMcKinley- .l/^rSj-ide 

157 Story of J)\c^ens— Smith 
*179 Story of the Flag— J?a/cer 
*185 Story of the First Crusade 

190 Story of Father Hennepin 

191 Story of LaSalle— ilfc£7 ide 
*217 Story of Florence Nightingale 
*218 Story of Peter Cooper— il/ci^(?e 

232 Storj^ of Sliakesneare- (t'7T<?»>-.? 
*2ti5 Four Little Discoverers inlPanama- i?i(.v/i. 
*287 Life in Colonial Days— Tiiimfir/tasi 
Literature 
*8 King of the G olden River—i?i/s^-i?i 
*9 The Golden Touc\\— Hawthorne 
*01 Sloi'v of Sindhad the Sailor 
*108 Historj' in Verse (Sheridan's Ride, Inde- 
pendence Bell, the Blue and the Gray, etc.) 
*113 Little Daffydowndilly and Other Stories— 

Hawthorne 
*180 Storv of Aladdin and of Ali Baha 
*183 A Dog of Flanders— Z>e La Kam.ee 
*184 The Nurnberg Stove— irt Ramee 
*18fi Heroes from King Arthur— Gr?-«ves 
194 Whittier's Poems— Selected. 



*199 Jackanaiies — Eioing 
*200 The Child of Urbino — La Ramee 
*208 Heroes of Asgard— Selections- A'ear?/ 
*212 Stories from Robin MooA— Bush 
*234 Poems Worth Knowing- Book II— Inter- 
mediate— J'oajon 
255 Chinese Fables and Stories 

SIXTH GRADE 
Nature and Industry 

*109 Gifts of the Forests (Rubber. Cinchona, 

Resins, etc.) — McFee 
249 Flowers and Birds of Illinois— Pattersoji 

Geography 

*li4 (ireat European Cities — I (London and 
Paris)— i?».v/i 

*115 Great European Cities- II (Rome and Ber- 
lin )—5i(.v;i 

*168 Great European Cities— III (St. Petersburg 
and Constantinople)— i?«.s/i 

*246 What I Saw in Japan— (Vr;;/?i.9 

*247 The Chinese and Their Country 

*285 Story of Panama and the Canal— iVida 

History and Biography 
*73 Four Great M usicians— iJusTi. 
*74 Four More Great Musicians 

*116 Old English Heroes (Alfred, Richard the 
Lion-Hearled, The Black Prince)— iJu.sft. 

*117 Later English Heroes (Cromwell, Welling- 
ton, Gladstone) 

*160 Heroes of the Revolution 

*163 Stories of Courage— 5»s/i 
187 Lives of Webster and Clay 

*188 Story of Napoleon— 5i(s7i 

*1S9 Stories of Heroism— 5i(s/i, 

197 Story of Lafayette— 5i(s7i 

198 Story of Roger Williams— ieigrftto?! 
*209 Lewis and Clark Expedition 

*224 Story of William TeW—Hallock 
253 Story of the Aeroplane — Galbreath 

*266 Story of Belgium— G^r/^zTis 
267 Story of Wheels— ^?.(.s/i 

*286 Story of Slavery— £ooA-er T. Washington 

Stories of the States 

508 Story of Vhn-'u\a,—Brauskett 

509 Story of Georgia— Z»en-y 

511 Story of Illinois- *S'»i/7/i 

512 Story of Indiana— CTe??!. 

513 Story of Iowa— il/ci^ee 

515 Story of Kentucky— ^'w&nnX- 

520 Story of Micliigan— AS'A.-mJier 

521 Story of Minnesota— (S'Ar/nner 
523 Story of Missouri— P/evvfi 

*528 Story of New 3 ev^ey— Hutchinson 

533 Story of Ohio— Gaib?-eo/;i 
*536 Story of Pennsylvania— ilfarcTi 

540 Story of Tennesee — Overall 

542 Story of Utah— Young 

546 Story of West Virginia— (S'/j.aitJA-e?/ 

547 Story of Wisconsin— (S'Arinner 
Literature 

*10 The Snow Image — Haivthorne 
*11 Rip Van Winkle— 7>-?'U7,«7 
*r2 Legend of Sleepy Hollow— J?-i;i»g' 
*22 Rabaud His Friends- i?roit'A 
*24 Three Golden Apples f— Hawthorne 
*25 The Miraculous Pitcher |- — JZaw^/iorne 
*26 The Minotaur— J^oir^/ioj-ne 
*118 A Tale of the White Hills and Other Stories 

—Hawtho7-ne 
*119 Bryant's Thanatopsis, and other Poems 
*r20 Ten Selections from Longfellow- (Paul 
Revere's Ride, The Skeleton in Armour, and 
other poems) 
121 Selections from Holmes '(The Wonderful 

One HossShav, Old Ironsides, and others) 
•122 The Pied Piper of Haraelin 

161 The Great Carbuncle, Mr. Higeinbotham's 
Catastrophe, Snowflakes- iTaw^/ioj-ne 

162 The Pygmies— J/<n/;^/(or«e 

(Continued on Next Page) 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATUR LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



*2U The Golden Tleece—JTaiothoime 

•2:i2 Kingsley's Greek Heroes — Part I. The 

8torv of Perseus 
•22:i Kingslej's Greek Heroes — Part IT. The 

Story of Theseus 
•225 Tennyson's Poems— Selected (For various 

grar'.es) 
229 Responsive Bible B.ea.Amgs—Zeller 
2(i t The Story of Don Quixote— ^usA 
•284 Story of Little l^ell— Smith 

SEVENTH GRADE 
Literature 

*13 Courtship of Miles Standish 
*14 Evangeline— Longfelloiv t 
*15 Suowl)Ound— KTifV^jVj- 1 
•20 The Great Stone Face, Rill from the Town 
Tump—irmvtho7'ne 

123 Seleclious from Wordsworth (Ode on Im- 
mortality, We are Seven, To the Cuckoo, 
and other poems) 

124 Selections from Shelley and Keats 

125 Selections from The Merchant of Venice 
•147 Story of King Arthur, as told by Tennyson 

—J!((llork 
•149 Man Without a Country, The— Hale t 
*192 Story of Jean Valjean— (?ra??zes 
•193 Selections from the Sketch Boo^— Irving 
196 The Gray L'\iiimp\on—Uaiv(/ioT7ie 

213 Poems of Tliomas ]Moore— (Selected) 

214 More Selections from the Sketch Book— 

*216 Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare— Selected 
*231 The Oregon Trail (Condensed from Park- 
man)— G^/rrmes 
*235 Poems Worth Knowing— Book III— Gram- 
mar— i^aa:o?i 
•238 Lamb's Adventures of Ulysses— Part I 
♦239 Lamb's Adventures of Ulysses— Part II 
•241 Story of the Iliad— aiiirch (Cond.) 
•242 Story of the ^neid—CViuj-c/i, (Cond.) 
•251 Storj' of Language and Literature — Heilig 
•252 The Battle of Waterloo— J/i(f/o 
254 Storj' of "The Talisman" (Scott) — Weekes 
•259 The Last of the Mohicans (abridged)— 

Weekes 
•260 Oliver Twist (abridged)— i2"e(7(Sr 




016 086 238 5 



Nature 

Sto 



Literat 

•17 F,n< 

*18 Vis 

*19 Coti 

•23 The Deserted Wllage— Goldsmith 
•126 Rime of the Ancient Mariner t 
•127 Gray's Elegy and Other Poems 
*128 Speeches of Lincoln 

129 Julius Csesar — Selections 

130 Henry the VITI— Seleclions 

131 Macbeth— Selections 

•142 Scott's Lady of the Lake-Canto If 

154 Scott'sLady of tlie Lake— Canto lit 

143 Building of the Ship and other Poems— 

Longfelloio 
148 Horatius, Ivry. The Armada— 3facaiitoj/ 
*150 Bunker Hill Address and Selections from 

Adams and Jefferson Oration— Webster 
*1.51 Gold Bug, The— Poe 

153 Prisoner of Chillon and other poems— 
Byron \ 

155 Rhoecua and Other ^oem?,— Lowell \ 

156 Edgar Allan Poe — Biography and selected 
poems— imA; 

•158 Washington's Farewell Address and Other 
Papers f 

169 Abram Joseph Ryan— Biography and se- 
lected poems— iS'mii/t 

170 Paul H. Hayne— Biography and selected 
poems— XmA; 

215 liife of Samuel Johnson — J>/ocai/7(7/(/ t 
*221 Sir Roger de Coverley Papers —Addison t 
*236 Poems Worth Knowing — Book IV — 

Advanced — Faxon 
237 Lay of tlie Last Minstrel —iSco^. Intro- 
duction and Canto I t 
Agricultural 
•271 Animal Husbandry— Horses and Cattle— 

Pluml) 
•272 Animal Industry-Sheep and ^wine—Flumb 

t Tliese have biographical sketch of author, with 
introduction or explanatory notes. 



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3 Courtship of Miles Standish. Longfellow. 

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5 Vision of Sir Launfal. Lowell. Biogra- 
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9 (ireat Stone Face. Hawthorne. Biog- 

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11 Browning's Poems. Selected poems with 

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13 Wordsworth's Poems. Selected poems 

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25 Some Water Birds. McFee. Description, 
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